YVR

Heading into hour three of my three-hour layover here in YVR.

I was so stressed about this trip and I am relieved to report that as soon as I got in Lovey's car* for the ride to the airport, all tension melted away. I have barely slept the last two nights, my busy brain would not shut up about the details, the details, the details. There was so much gear to get, organize, find, pack. So much work at the office to finish up, hand off, prepare, put into one-month hibernation.

One fun bit is that Daniel Lanois was on my plane to Vancouver. I talked with him just a little at the gate because he was right in front of me and it felt totally comfortable to make idle chat. He had great shoes and I told him so. He said they were his favourites but that they were about to die. Which is true, the leather was cracking. He seems like a humble, kind, down-to-earth kind of guy. I almost blurted out "My friend Kim thinks your friend Bono should be the next pope!"... but wisely, I didn't.

I kind of wish my layover here in Vancouver was either just a little longer (so I might have popped into town and gone for a walk on the beach) or a little shorter -- so that I'd be in the air on the way to the Yukon already.

So, under the circumstances, there being Internet stations here is a blessing. I already have read so much, and napped, and in a corny airport restaurant I chatted with an interesting fiddler/biathlon (skiing! shooting!) athlete from Edmonton who is going to take a bow-making course in Victoria at the conservatory. And then, after the fiddler left, just as I was casting about for something to do, the glowing teat of the Internet station caught my eye. Cheap and easy, just how I like my Internets.

Happy Canada Day!

*Lovey Howell III, my hot brilliant Amazonian chick friend who has just moved to my town in Ontario.